April 2nd in Aviation History: France Establishes World’s First Air Force, Boeing 777 Sets Speed Record

A painting by Jean Baptiste Mauzaisse depicts French and Austrian forces at the Battle of Fleurus with the balloon l'Entreprenant in the background.

2004 – Noted aeronautical engineer John Argyris passes away in Stuttgart at the age of 90.

1997 – A Rolls-Royce Trent-powered Boeing 777-200ER lands in Seattle to set a new eastbound around-the-world average speed record of 553 mph. During the trip, the plane flew Seattle to Kuala Lumpur nonstop, setting a nonstop flight distance record of 12,455.34 miles.

1987 – A Royal Air Force Vickers VC-10 lands in Perth 16 hours and 1 minute after leaving England, setting a new UK-Australia speed record.

1986 – A bomb explodes onboard TWA Flight 840, a Boeing 727-200 (N54340) flying from Rome to Athens. Four people are ejected from the plane and killed, and nine injured, but the plane lands safely. A Lebanese woman hired by terrorist Abu Nidal is later convicted of planting the plastic explosive device under a seat cushion during an earlier flight.

1984 – Rakesh Sharma becomes the first Indian to visit space, as a Cosmonaut aboard Soyuz T-11.

1937 – Aircraft manufacturer Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, better known as SAAB, is founded in Sweden.

1794 – The French Army sets up the world’s first military air force, using the balloon Entreprenant for reconnaissance of Austrian forces during the Battle of Fleurus.

The midair collision of a United DC-8 and TWA Constellation over New York City, Concorde makes the first sub-3-hour Atlantic crossing, an Air Canada CRJ crashes, and more...TWA ceases operations, Northwest Orient Flight 6231 crashes in NY, the Civil Air Patrol is born, and more...
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America's first municipal airport opens in Tucson, an aircraft reaches Mach 2 for the first time, several tragic crashes, and more... The story of how widebody tri-jets showed up at LGA, and how they drifted away, as told and wonderfully illustrated by planespotters.

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